Tyra Banks Sues Netflix Over 'ANTM' Doc Defamation
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- Tyra Banks filed suit on Saturday against Netflix, 89 Blocks Holdings, EverWonder Studio, Netflix Music, and co-directors Mor Loushy and Daniel Sivan, alleging false light, defamation by implication, breach of contract, and false endorsement
- The lawsuit claims Banks gave a "three-and-a-half-hour" interview that was cut to "about 16 minutes" and "reassembled to support a false and defamatory narrative unrelated to what she actually expressed"
- Banks' lawyers argue the producers used "selective editing, deliberate omission, and surgical manipulation" to fabricate the claim that she "knowingly allowed a contestant to be sexually assaulted on her show, exploited that contestant's trauma for ratings, and then could not even remember it when asked" — a narrative the suit calls "a complete fabrication"
- The suit singles out cycle two contestant Shandi Sullivan, saying the series shows Banks glancing upward and saying "um" before the screen cuts to black — implying she couldn't remember the story — when unedited footage allegedly shows her nodding and saying "I do remember her story"
- The lawsuit alleges Banks was never told during her interview that Sullivan now describes the Milan encounter as an assault, framing the questioner Loushy's prompt as a setup designed to produce damning footage
- Banks' lawyers also allege that the accountability she did take for the show's shortcomings "ended up on the cutting room floor"
- Banks, who hosted 'America's Next Top Model' for 22 cycles starting in 2003, is requesting a jury trial and asking jurors to recommend punitive damages
Why it matters: Banks is seeking a jury trial and punitive damages over a docuseries that streamed to 'millions' globally, putting Netflix's editorial practices under legal scrutiny. The Shandi Sullivan example — built around a sexual assault allegation Banks' suit says she was never informed of — gives the case a specific, explosive factual dispute that could surface uncomfortable questions about how docuseries producers frame on-camera responses.
